No, that's not a typo. Or a ridiculous fusion of a table and pants. TANT is an acronym for There's Actually a Name for That?
Merriam-Webster, the gold standard of what's accepted American English and what isn't, identifies 14 standard punctuation marks, standard meaning they are appropriate to use in formal writing. There are the delineators (periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, semicolons, dashes), bonders (hyphens, semicolons, colons), enclosers (parentheses, braces, brackets, quotation marks, commas, dashes), omitters (ellipsis marks, apostrophes, hyphens), and possessors (apostrophes).
But just fourteen? No way. There are WAY more than just those.
English has dozens of "non-standard" punctuation marks that are used all the time... yes, even in formal writing. They pepper every modern keyboard and are the backbone of a lot of online-only grammar. What makes them "non-standard" is that they 1. aren't used as frequently as the 14 standard marks, and 2. mostly came about after most grammatical conventions were established in the late Middle Ages.
Let's run down all the commonly used non-standard punctuation marks that are actually pretty standard. Most people can identify these marks by sight but have no idea what the mark is called or the rules governing it (hence, TANTs). We'll only look at commonly accepted punctuation marks and not bespoke marks that never widely caught on, like the percontation mark (⸮), diple obelismene (⸫), or manicule (☞).¹
Merriam-Webster, the gold standard of what's accepted American English and what isn't, identifies 14 standard punctuation marks, standard meaning they are appropriate to use in formal writing. There are the delineators (periods, question marks, exclamation points, commas, semicolons, dashes), bonders (hyphens, semicolons, colons), enclosers (parentheses, braces, brackets, quotation marks, commas, dashes), omitters (ellipsis marks, apostrophes, hyphens), and possessors (apostrophes).
But just fourteen? No way. There are WAY more than just those.
English has dozens of "non-standard" punctuation marks that are used all the time... yes, even in formal writing. They pepper every modern keyboard and are the backbone of a lot of online-only grammar. What makes them "non-standard" is that they 1. aren't used as frequently as the 14 standard marks, and 2. mostly came about after most grammatical conventions were established in the late Middle Ages.
Let's run down all the commonly used non-standard punctuation marks that are actually pretty standard. Most people can identify these marks by sight but have no idea what the mark is called or the rules governing it (hence, TANTs). We'll only look at commonly accepted punctuation marks and not bespoke marks that never widely caught on, like the percontation mark (⸮), diple obelismene (⸫), or manicule (☞).¹
SOLIDUS (/)
Also known as a slash or backslash, a solidus (/) was originally what the French used as a comma, and like a comma, it separates. Specifically, a solidus in proper English grammar separates numerators and denominators in a fraction (I need 2/3 majority on this bill) or replaces the word "per" in units of measurement (My EV reached 4.2 mi/kWh on those mountain roads). Outside of proper English, the solidus is used to split up options instead of "or" (I have some yes/no questions) and is sometimes used to abbreviate words (peanut butter w/ jelly). Soliduses are also critical in coding languages for separating different sections of code.
AMPERSAND (&)
An ampersand is a symbol meaning "and." The name itself comes from the phrase the symbol originally replaced: "and per se," which was another way of saying "and other similar things," or et cetera. Roman cursive actually had a symbol as a shorthand for et cetera that was an e run together with a t, and over time as cursive got curvier, this evolved into &. English speakers in the 1600s rediscovered the symbol and used it in place of "and per se" at the ends of sentences (I picked up all the beach stuff: sunscreen, towels&.) However, people started using it to replace and instead of et cetera, and that's how it is used today. Ampersands are used in formal writing and citation only when part of a company name (e.g., Johnson & Johnson) and never as a replacement for and in a normal sentence (I went to the circus & saw the monkeys).
INTERROBANG (‽)
Writers used to be able to end a sentence with multiple end marks, and so questions of disbelief got a question mark and exclamation point (You ate the entire wedding cake by yourself?!) However, the rise of newspapers and other periodicals in the early twentieth century changed this. Some papers paid writers by the word (this is how Victor Hugo got started writing), some by the sentence (like Charles Dickens), and some by the letter. This last group of outlets pushed for only one end punctuation mark at the end of a sentence to be acceptable in formal writing so they could save money, and they eventually got their way. However, the use of multiple question marks, multiple exclamation points, and both question marks and exclamation points never went away in informal writing. In 1962, an American advertiser named Martin K. Speckter liked the look of ?! at the end of ad lines, but when he was told he could only end the sentence with one mark, he combined the two into the interrobang (‽). While the interrobang became popular in the '60s and '70s, it never became a formally accepted mark in English. However, it still pops up consistently, and many fonts have it as a character option.
ASTERISK (*) and OBELUS (†)
The word asterisk (*) comes from the Greek asteriskos, or "little star." Sometimes using five points and other times using six, asterisks were used by writers in ancient Greece to indicate passages of a text that didn't make sense or needed amending—basically, it meant "fix this." These were the days before Wite-Out and the delete key, so if the page couldn't be altered on the line, a note was left at the bottom of the page beside another asterisk explaining what the corrected text should be. This started the tradition of using an asterisk to add additional notes to a text that gave further explanation and nuance that not everyone needed to know but that some would like to know. The asterisk is still used this way.
The Ancient Greek editors used another symbol in addition to the asterisk: the obelus (†). Greek for "sharp stick," the Greek obelus started as a vertical line with a dot on either side but eventually took the form of a little dagger. This was an indication of what the obelus told editor: kill this sentence. While an asterisk meant "fix me," an obelus meant "eliminate this." Scribes originally would just cross out entire lines of text, but they didn't like how this divided the page. This idea of the obelus as a divider led to another derivation of the original obelus: the division symbol (÷).
As more annotations were needed on each page, a new symbol called the double obelus (‡) was created, but eventually, these annotation marks gave way to superscript, Arabic numbers that are as small as an asterisk and are placed in the same position toward the top of a line. Fittingly, the obelus is still frequently used in dictionaries to indicate obsolete or "dead" words.
The Ancient Greek editors used another symbol in addition to the asterisk: the obelus (†). Greek for "sharp stick," the Greek obelus started as a vertical line with a dot on either side but eventually took the form of a little dagger. This was an indication of what the obelus told editor: kill this sentence. While an asterisk meant "fix me," an obelus meant "eliminate this." Scribes originally would just cross out entire lines of text, but they didn't like how this divided the page. This idea of the obelus as a divider led to another derivation of the original obelus: the division symbol (÷).
As more annotations were needed on each page, a new symbol called the double obelus (‡) was created, but eventually, these annotation marks gave way to superscript, Arabic numbers that are as small as an asterisk and are placed in the same position toward the top of a line. Fittingly, the obelus is still frequently used in dictionaries to indicate obsolete or "dead" words.
OCTOTHROPE (#) and NUMERO (№)
Two different symbols are used in English to indicate the word number: the octothrope and the numero. The octothrope consists of two vertical lines and two horizontal lines intersecting and evolved from a Latin symbol combining an L and P for the phrase libra poundo, or weight per pound. The numero sign is a shortening of the word numero (Latin for number) to just №, but unlike other abbreviations, the second letter is elevated as superscript. Both of these symbols can replace the word number when it comes before a digit (We're going to be #1! I'll take the № 2 on rye), but aren't often used in formal writing.
DEGREE (°), PRIME (' '' '''), and other mathematical symbols
As letters and the symbols of language were developed in the ancient world and refined during the Renaissance, a separate grammar of mathematics was simultaniously created. Most of Europe used Roman numerals until the 13th century, and it took until the late 15th century before the plus (+) and minus (-) sign became commonplace, the 16th for the equals (=) and percent (%) signs, and the 17th for the muliplication (x) and division (÷) signs.
All of these symbols were integrated into language so people could write texts about mathematics, and a version of all these symbols are part of the basic keyboard. However, there are two common and important mathematical symbols left off the keyboard: the degree mark and the prime mark. The degree mark is a superscript open circle that has been used since the 16th century to denote gradients of an arc, and later, any mathematical angle. In the 18th century, degrees were also incorporated into geographic coordinates and were used to denote gradients of temperature.
When geographic coordinates became standardized, people needed a way to distinguish further gradients between degrees, as each degree is separated by approximately 70 miles. First-order and second-order derivatives were created (minutes and seconds, respectively) and indicated by a prime mark, a small vertical line in superscript. Minutes were indicated by a single prime mark and seconds by two prime marks. This notation caught on and soon was used for all types of units concerning time, size, distance, volume, and even music. Today, prime marks are most commonly used in the US to indicate height, with a single prime mark representing feet and two marks representing inches (e.g., "Danny Devito is only 4' 10" tall.") While apostrophes are commonly substituted for single prime marks and quote marks for double primes, primes do have a different shape and their own symbol.
All of these symbols were integrated into language so people could write texts about mathematics, and a version of all these symbols are part of the basic keyboard. However, there are two common and important mathematical symbols left off the keyboard: the degree mark and the prime mark. The degree mark is a superscript open circle that has been used since the 16th century to denote gradients of an arc, and later, any mathematical angle. In the 18th century, degrees were also incorporated into geographic coordinates and were used to denote gradients of temperature.
When geographic coordinates became standardized, people needed a way to distinguish further gradients between degrees, as each degree is separated by approximately 70 miles. First-order and second-order derivatives were created (minutes and seconds, respectively) and indicated by a prime mark, a small vertical line in superscript. Minutes were indicated by a single prime mark and seconds by two prime marks. This notation caught on and soon was used for all types of units concerning time, size, distance, volume, and even music. Today, prime marks are most commonly used in the US to indicate height, with a single prime mark representing feet and two marks representing inches (e.g., "Danny Devito is only 4' 10" tall.") While apostrophes are commonly substituted for single prime marks and quote marks for double primes, primes do have a different shape and their own symbol.
PESODOLLAR ($) and other currancy symbols
Another symbol regularly associated with math and numerals is the pesodollar ($). This symbol emerged from the Americas. When colonizing much of Latin America, Spain held the strongest international currency: the peso duro. These coins were produced in Spain and were popular because they were so high quality that could be physically and evenly divided into eight slices like a pizza (which were officially called reales but were often called "bits" or "pieces of eight").
New World pesos, however, were not nearly as good. Lacking the careful precision of the Spanish royal mint, coins made in the Americas were crude, lumpy, and seldom perfectly round. Instead of a detailed royal engraving, these coins had an S superimposed on a P (for "Spanish Peso"), which looked something like the current pesodollar.
Why is it called the pesodollar though? The Spanish may have had the best coins, but the Dutch had the best trade network, and they called their coins dollars. To them, pesos were just "Spanish dollars," a name that eventually replaced the term peso in Spain itself. In the United States specifically, these two forces blended: Americans called their coins dollars, but since they used American Spanish Pesos, they started representing dollars with the $ symbol.
Today, the pesodollar is used to denote dollars in the US, Canada, Australia, and several Caribbean and Central American countries, while the pesodollar is used to denote pesos in Mexico, almost all of South America, and several Caribbean and Central American countries. However, these aren't the only currencies with symbols. The British pound is represented by £, the Euro by €, and the Chinese Yuan and Japanese Yen by ¥, among many others.
English always places the currency symbol in front of the amount ($100, £4.77, €10.80, ¥445.17) even if that is not the convention by the country the currency is from. The only exception is the symbol for the word "cent" (¢).
New World pesos, however, were not nearly as good. Lacking the careful precision of the Spanish royal mint, coins made in the Americas were crude, lumpy, and seldom perfectly round. Instead of a detailed royal engraving, these coins had an S superimposed on a P (for "Spanish Peso"), which looked something like the current pesodollar.
Why is it called the pesodollar though? The Spanish may have had the best coins, but the Dutch had the best trade network, and they called their coins dollars. To them, pesos were just "Spanish dollars," a name that eventually replaced the term peso in Spain itself. In the United States specifically, these two forces blended: Americans called their coins dollars, but since they used American Spanish Pesos, they started representing dollars with the $ symbol.
Today, the pesodollar is used to denote dollars in the US, Canada, Australia, and several Caribbean and Central American countries, while the pesodollar is used to denote pesos in Mexico, almost all of South America, and several Caribbean and Central American countries. However, these aren't the only currencies with symbols. The British pound is represented by £, the Euro by €, and the Chinese Yuan and Japanese Yen by ¥, among many others.
English always places the currency symbol in front of the amount ($100, £4.77, €10.80, ¥445.17) even if that is not the convention by the country the currency is from. The only exception is the symbol for the word "cent" (¢).
AT (@) and other commercial symbols
Money symbols aren't the only symbols that entered English as a result of commerce. The copyright symbol (©) originated in the United States in 1909 as a shorthand way to show that a work was protected, though symbols indicating copy protection go back to the Middle Ages, where Scottish authors would stamp their family coat of arms on a text to show that it was protected by their family. In 1946, the US also introduced the trademark symbol (TM) and the registered trademark symbol (®). Since the 1970s, there have also been different attempts at creating a symbol to indicate that a work is not under copy protection and is free for any use, including the copyleft mark, the public domain mark, and the Creative Commons mark.
Perhaps the strangest of all these commercial marks is the commercial at (@), which is used primarily for email and other domain-centric communications. This symbol has its origins in the manuscripts of 14th-century monks, who used the symbol as a shorthand for the word "at." Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors then used @ as shorthand for arroba, or an amount of 25 dollars or pesos. Meanwhile, Italy used @ as a shorthand for adi, meaning "on the day of." The commercial at gained its universal meaning as an indicator of location or set amount in 1971 with the development of the first email server. The commercial at is sometimes called the arobase or ampersat.
Perhaps the strangest of all these commercial marks is the commercial at (@), which is used primarily for email and other domain-centric communications. This symbol has its origins in the manuscripts of 14th-century monks, who used the symbol as a shorthand for the word "at." Spanish and Portuguese conquistadors then used @ as shorthand for arroba, or an amount of 25 dollars or pesos. Meanwhile, Italy used @ as a shorthand for adi, meaning "on the day of." The commercial at gained its universal meaning as an indicator of location or set amount in 1971 with the development of the first email server. The commercial at is sometimes called the arobase or ampersat.
GUILLEMETS (« ») and CHEVRONS (< >)
While English indicates quotations with quotation marks, not every language uses this symbol. Notably, French, Greek, Italian, Arabic, Castilian Spanish, Swiss, and Nordic languages instead use guillemets, which are a double set of angled brackets. English does not use guillemets at all.
However, English does sometimes use a derivative of guillemets, the chevron. Chevrons are a set of single angle brackets which, in English, indicate that something is being said in a language other than English but has been translated for the reader into English. Given the relative rarity of this circumstance appearing in text, chevrons found more regular use in HTML coding.
However, English does sometimes use a derivative of guillemets, the chevron. Chevrons are a set of single angle brackets which, in English, indicate that something is being said in a language other than English but has been translated for the reader into English. Given the relative rarity of this circumstance appearing in text, chevrons found more regular use in HTML coding.
TILDE (~) and other diacritical symbols
While English did not adopt the guillemets of other languages, it has adopted several words from other languages, and along with this, have half-a-dozen accent marks that can be added to letters to indicate how they are pronounced in their native language. The most common in American English is the tilde (~), which is placed over an "n" to create a /ny/ sound (e.g, piñon, piña colada, jalapeño).
Other accent marks (which are formally called diacritical marks) include:
Other accent marks (which are formally called diacritical marks) include:
- acute marker (´): added over the letter 'e' to indicate it is pronounced as /ay/ and is not silent (e.g., café, cliché, fiancée, sauté)
- grave marker (`): added over a vowel to show that it should be stressed/voiced (e.g., déjà vu, crème, à la carte); grave markers also often appear in older verse (like Shakespeare's plays) to show when a syllable should be stressed so it can fit the poetic meter (e.g., "So is mine eye enthrallèd to thy shape" MSD 3.1.23)
- cedilla (¸): added to the bottom of the letter "c" that comes before a vowel to show it is pronounced as an /s/ instead of a /k/ (e.g., façade, açaí, soupçon)
- diaeresis (¨): added over a vowel to show it should be pronounced separately from the preceding vowel and not as a dipthong (e.g., naïve, Noël, Charlotte Brontë)
- circumflex (ˆ): added to vowels of French loanwords (most of them food-related) to indicate a long vowel sound (e.g., château, crêpe, pâté, maître d')
DINKUS ( * * * ) and other dingbats
In a narrative story, a paragraph should break to indicate a new action, new speaker, change in location, or the passage of time. But what about a large jump in time and place, like the next day or a week later? Is there such thing as a super paragraph break?
There is, and it is called a dinkus. The dinkus, which is the only grammatical mark given to the world by Australia, consists of three asterisks or three solid dots spaced half an inch apart and centered on a page between two full paragraph breaks. That's a long explanation for something that is more easy to visualize:
There is, and it is called a dinkus. The dinkus, which is the only grammatical mark given to the world by Australia, consists of three asterisks or three solid dots spaced half an inch apart and centered on a page between two full paragraph breaks. That's a long explanation for something that is more easy to visualize:
* * *
While the dinkus was formally created and named in the 1920s, a version of the dinkus has been around since the earliest days of publishing. Paper was a scarcity in the times of parchment, so instead of starting a new section on a new page, scribes would skip a couple of lines and then start the new section. To indicate a division, scribes and later printers would often decorate the space between with a line, a picture of a vine leaf called a flureon (❦), or other pictures.
Pictures that "decorate" writing to frame or divide the text even have their own name: dingbats. In older texts, dingbats can be found not just between passages but between columns and at the tops and bottoms of pages. At times, even the initial letter of a passage, which was often larger and differently colored to indicate the start of a passage, became decorated with dingbats. Unlike emjois, dingbats are not symbols used to indicate an idea or a specific word in text but exist to be aestethically pleasing.
Pictures that "decorate" writing to frame or divide the text even have their own name: dingbats. In older texts, dingbats can be found not just between passages but between columns and at the tops and bottoms of pages. At times, even the initial letter of a passage, which was often larger and differently colored to indicate the start of a passage, became decorated with dingbats. Unlike emjois, dingbats are not symbols used to indicate an idea or a specific word in text but exist to be aestethically pleasing.
PILCROW (¶) and other editorial symbols
All of the symbols so far are used, albeit less than frequently, in published texts. Yet there are a set of symbols that don't appear in publishing but are used all the time by writers... or rather, the editors of those writers. These symbols indicate formatting changes that must happen to a manuscript before its final print run, and they can be found in the settings of every word processer and in the red ink an English teacher scribbles on an essay.
The most common editorial mark is the pilcrow (¶), which is shorthand for the word "paragraph." Usually, a pilcrow is placed where a paragraph break is needed, but it also appears in an editor's notes (e.g., "move this ¶ to end). If more than just a paragraph break is needed but a new section (perhaps with a dinkus as a divider), the editor uses a silcrow. Silcrows (§) stand for the word "section" and are frequently used a lot in legal documents (e.g., "See CRS § 22-1-120" means "See the Colorado Revised Statues, Section 22-1-120").
Another commonly used symbol is a carat (^), which indicates that something needs to be added between words. Speaking of what's between words, there used to be a symbol that was placed between words instead of a space called an interpunct. Interpuncts (·) are vertically centered dots, and they are mostly used informally to separate elements in web titles. However, some markup languages (i.e., the raw computer code behind the text window) still add interpuncts between words to indicate "soft breaks" and not "hard breaks" (those at the ends of sentences). This is how many language models know that, for example, "Dr." ends a sentence in "She lives on Lookout Dr." but not in "She went to visit Dr. Morton, who went to Johns Hopkins."
The most common editorial mark is the pilcrow (¶), which is shorthand for the word "paragraph." Usually, a pilcrow is placed where a paragraph break is needed, but it also appears in an editor's notes (e.g., "move this ¶ to end). If more than just a paragraph break is needed but a new section (perhaps with a dinkus as a divider), the editor uses a silcrow. Silcrows (§) stand for the word "section" and are frequently used a lot in legal documents (e.g., "See CRS § 22-1-120" means "See the Colorado Revised Statues, Section 22-1-120").
Another commonly used symbol is a carat (^), which indicates that something needs to be added between words. Speaking of what's between words, there used to be a symbol that was placed between words instead of a space called an interpunct. Interpuncts (·) are vertically centered dots, and they are mostly used informally to separate elements in web titles. However, some markup languages (i.e., the raw computer code behind the text window) still add interpuncts between words to indicate "soft breaks" and not "hard breaks" (those at the ends of sentences). This is how many language models know that, for example, "Dr." ends a sentence in "She lives on Lookout Dr." but not in "She went to visit Dr. Morton, who went to Johns Hopkins."
FOOTNOTES:
1. For those that are curious, the percontation mark was created by English printer Henry Denham to end rhetorical questions to distinguish them from genuine questions; the diple obelismene was an ancient Greek symbol used to illustrate the end of one section and the start of another with a different meter or speaker; and the manicule as a reference to a term from the index (which is why it uses an index finger)
1. For those that are curious, the percontation mark was created by English printer Henry Denham to end rhetorical questions to distinguish them from genuine questions; the diple obelismene was an ancient Greek symbol used to illustrate the end of one section and the start of another with a different meter or speaker; and the manicule as a reference to a term from the index (which is why it uses an index finger)
This article was last updated on 5 May 2026.